Robbing Bees

This is the year to expect the unexpected, wouldn’t you agree?  Who could have predicted there would be so many upheavals to our social, political, economic and public health norms in just the past 5 months! I suppose, therefore, I shouldn’t be surprised by unexpected events in my own backyard.  Recently, we had the Bully Chicken.  Now, it’s the discovery of robbing bees in my apiary.  Completely unexpected, and therefore, given the pattern of 2020, to be expected. To the uninitiated, robbing bees steal honey from undefended stores of the sweet stuff. It could be from a weak hive, or just an open jar.  They are opportunists who recognize a potentially easier means of foraging than hours spent gathering nectar in a clover field. In my case, thankfully the robbers were going through an empty hive, the one where I had been storing frames that had small bits of capped honey still on them.  I have to say, it was quite startling to see a frenzy of bee activity where there wasn’t supposed to be any. At first, I thought the robbing bees were from my own hives, but after watching the travel pattern, it became clear this gang was from elsewhere far beyond. Just to be clear, I did have all the entrances to these storage boxes sealed to prevent such an occurrence. It’s not just other bees who would be interested, but yellow jackets, too.  But as I watched this crazy bit of weirdness, it became obvious the entrances weren’t all that sealed up after all.  The looters were squeezing in around (ironically) the robbing screen, as well as under the bit of painter’s tape I had put on the upper entrance.  Looking back, I could have thrown a wet towel over the empty hive to tamp down the robbing.  But I did nothing.  Not sure if that was the right thing to do.  Today, the activity is still on-going, but markedly reduced (see photo). I don’t mind the frames getting cleaned up, as it were.  But I do fear that once these thieves are done with their heist, they might attack my actual hives that are close by.  Will be keeping an eye out for that, and keeping the big towel handy.  Oh, and I’ll be getting a replacement robbing screen.   HoneyBeeSuite recommends this non-wood one.

This photo is from Day 2 of the heist. The frenzy died down, but still some lingering activity. They certainly made the front of the hive box dirty.